The love affair people have with their automobiles is a well-known fact. Countless hours are spent cleaning, waxing, and detailing cars every day, just so they can look their best as they drive down the road. While physical maintenance such as that outlined above is an important part of keeping a vehicle looking good, protecting a vehicle from environmental dangers is even more important. For those vehicle owners without a garage, a common tool to aid in this effort is the vehicle cover. While the vehicle cover does provide some protection from environmental and light physical dangers, strong physical damage, such as from hail or light tree branches, can overcome its protection. Such damage from hailstorms is immediate, long lasting, and costly. Accordingly, a need has developed for a means by which automobiles can be protected against common environmental damage, especially hail, in a quick, easy, and effective manner. The development of the hail cover fulfills this need.
The apparatus of the present invention is a cover that provides environmental protection for vehicles, especially against hail storms. It is an inflatable cover that can be carried in the vehicle when deflated, but takes the form of a large inflatable shield when inflated. It is provided with apertures disposed throughout the cover to provide for a fluid-dynamic structure, which assists with stabilizing the position of the cover during turbulent winds. In its deflated state, the cover is unfolded and placed upon the hood, passenger section, and trunk of the vehicle. Strong elastic straps are provided to secure it to the chassis and hold the invention in place. Next, the cover is inflated by way of an inflation tube, which may be accessed by an occupant while inside the vehicle. After use, the invention can be quickly deflated by way of a valve, and folded for storage.
Prior art in this field consists of reinforced covers and inflatable covers, but none with the added utility that the present invention provides. Prior art reinforced covers consist of padded covers or covers having rigid plank members incorporated into the cover. These covers are not inflatable/deflatable and tend to be unwieldy. Prior art inflatable covers do exist, but with limitations that the present invention overcomes. These prior art inflatable covers do not provide a means to inflate/deflate the cover from an occupant of a vehicle while seated inside the vehicle. They also fail to provide an option to inflate the cover by a human or an ancillary compressed air source. Furthermore, these prior art inflatable covers fail to provide the fluid-dynamic aperture structure to assist with stabilizing the position of the cover during turbulent winds.
It is an objective of the present invention to provide a vehicle cover that effectively protects a vehicle from bombardment of hail and similar objects.
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a vehicle cover that is inflatable/deflatable and configured to be easily foldable, wieldable, and storable.
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a vehicle cover that may be inflatable/deflatable from an occupant of a vehicle while the occupant is inside the vehicle and the cover is placed on the vehicle.
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a vehicle cover that may be manually inflated by a human or inflated by connection to an ancillary compressed air source.
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a quick and easy securement mechanism to secure the vehicle cover to a vehicle while in use.
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a vehicle cover with a fluid-dynamic aperture structure to assist with stabilizing the position of the cover during turbulent winds.